Jill Dando: Her Life and Death

She was attractive, successful and, at the age of 37, about to marry the man she loved. Then, with a single bullet to the head, on her own doorstep, and in broad daylight, she became Britain's most famous murder victim. The national shock that followed was a measure not only of the cruelty of the crime but also of her remarkable popularity. After ten years in national television, the woman who insisted her secret weapon was her ordinariness had created something extraordinary. The BBC's golden girl was also the girl next door -familiar, trusted and liked by millions. Her murder remains unsolved and also scarcely believable. Brian Cathcart, author of "The Case of Stephen Lawrence" and "Were You Still Up for Portillo?", recounts Jill Dando's development from gawky schoolgirl to glamorous celebrity. Drawing on her own words as well as the testimony of friends and colleagues, he seeks in her background and relationships the reasons for her powerful appeal, asking the key question: Was she what she seemed? He also examines in detail the clues left behind by the killer and the evidence assembled by one of Britain's most exhaustive murder inquiries. What, for example, was the role of the sweating man at the bus stop? And how much does the bullet tell us? "Jill Dando: Her Life and Death" is a revealing look behind the public mask of celebrity and a thorough investigation into one of the most shocking murders of recent times.